Hunting as a symbol of cultural tradition : the cultural meaning of subsistence activities in Gwich'in Athabascan society of northern Alaska

Gwich'in, especially males who are active hunters.These hunters explained that Gwich'in traditions include their lifestyle of hunting, trapping, fishing and gathering, and especially their bush skills which enable them to pursue this lifestyle.The purpose of this chapter is to show that, among modern Alaskan Gwich'in, traditional subsistence activities, especially hunting and its associated bush skills, have come to be important as a symbol of cultural tradition and as a source of cultural identity in opposition to the wider, majority society.Having examined some aspects of the behavior and utterances I was able to observe in Gwich'in communities, I will consider how Gwich'in hun{ing and gathering traditions relate to their politicallcultural situations and what meanings the people themselves give to these activities in the context of their modern lives.6The Gwich'in The Gwich'in and their territory The Gwich'in are one of the Northern Athabascan hunter-gatherer groups who speak dialects of the Gwich'in language, a member of the Northern Athabascan language family.They live on and around the flats of the Yukon and Mackenzie River systems of the Alaskan Interior (U.S.A.) and northern Canada.Thus, they live on both sides of the border between the U.S.A. and Canada, although their political status and social-cultural situations are different in Alaska and Canada.My main concern is with Gwich'in society and culture in Alaska.Formerly nomadic, the Gwich'in now inhabit several settlements, including Fort Yukon, Circle, Venetie, Arctic Village, Chalkyitsik and Birch Creek in Alaska, U.S.A., Old Crow in Yukon Tenitory, Fort McPherson, Arctic Red River, Aklavik and Inuvik in the Northwest Tenitory of Canada.They live in these settlements throughout the year, occasionally engaging in traditional subsistence activities.It is very difficult to know how many people actually live in these settlements of northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada (Fast 1995: 3-16), although according to statements by the Gwich'in Steering Committee the population numbers approximately 7,OOO (The Gwich'in Steering Committee 2000).The climate of their territory is interior subarctic and the land is, for the most part, covered by boreal forest (Slobodin 1981: 514).This is the habitat of both large and small mammals such as moose, caribou, muskrat, beaver, wolverine, porcupine, snowshoe hare, mink, marten, or lynx that are targets for Gwich'in hunting/trapping activities.The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is located in the north of Gwich'in territory and is a habitat for the Porcupine River Caribou Herd, the Iargest caribou herd in the U.S.A, which consists of approximately 160,OOO animals.This herd regularly migrates through Gwich'in territory.Rivers of the Yukon and Mackenzie River systems that pass through Gwich'in territory also provide fish for the Gwich'in diet, such as chum salmon, silver salmon, king salmon, white fish, inconnu, grayling and northern pike.In their tenitory Gwich'in can also gather edible plants, including a wide variety of berries.

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